The term “roundabout” is intended herein to indicate an amusement device normally present in fair grounds, amusement parks, and similar places, without the description being limited to the classic “carousel” structure of the roundabout itself.
In the roundabout sector, there is a constant search for developing machines capable of arousing new and more intense sensations for users achieved by new geometries of the structures of the machines themselves. Moreover, the search referred to above will privilege machines that enable simulation of possible extreme real situations, such as for example piloting an aeroplane.
Various known embodiments of roundabouts are provided with arms bearing one or more vehicles that are made to rotate with the arm to simulate the flight of an aeroplane. The roundabouts envisage a stationary central column and one or two arms which are able to turn in a vertical plane. Each arm carries at its end a spaceship or vehicle, namely, a device for accommodating users (passengers) which can turn on itself. An example of said embodiments is provided by the Technical Park and is illustrated in FIG. 7. This type of embodiment, with or without interactive control of the drives of the vehicle, leads to unnatural movements that subject the passengers to combinations of unpleasant accelerations. In practice, the sensations aroused in the passengers in known embodiments substantially depend upon the circular motion of the vehicles carried by the arms and are thus relatively limited.
Other examples of roundabouts are disclosed in German Patent Application Nos. DE 42 22 850 A1 and DE 91 04 204 U1. For example, German Patent Application No. DE 42 22 850 A1 discloses a roundabout in which a plurality of cantilevered arms are rotatable around a vertical column. At the end of each arm, there is rotatably mounted a bar having at its end a vehicle for passengers. The vehicles are mounted on the bar in such a way that they are free to rotate with respect to it. For this reason, during the rotation of main arms and of the bars with respect to them, the vehicles are subjected to irregular and chaotic oscillations, which lead to unpleasant and possibly dangerous movements.
In addition, German Patent Application No. DE 91 04 204 U1 relates to a roundabout of the type comprising cantilevered arms on which are rotatably mounted first bars having second bars mounted on their ends. At the ends of the second arms are rotatably supported vehicles for passengers. This type of roundabout has many degrees of freedom and many possibilities of relative movements of each part with respect to the others resulting, also in this case, in random movements that subject the passengers to combinations of unpleasant accelerations.
An object of the present invention is to solve the problems set forth above and provide a safe and reliable roundabout, which is able to create new sensations in users. It is another object of the present invention to provide a roundabout that can simulate a “tonneau” movement of an airplane.